1: Theoretical Concepts; 2: Two Components of Soviet Ideology; 3: Adjusting the Revolutionary Ideology to Totalitarian Goals; 4: World Revolution As a Geopolitical Instrument; 5: Open and Closed Ideologies; 6: Policy Toward Key Social Groups Workers and Creative Intelligentsia; 7: The Political System The Supreme Leader As the Major Institution; 8: An Effective Political Machine; 9: The Economy Organic Flaws and Achievements; 10: Public Opinion Acceptance of the Regime; 11: The Regime and the Empire A Complex Relationship; 12: Reforms Alternatives in History; 13: Reforming the System, Destroying Its Fundamentals; 14: Consequences; Conclusion

This study analyzes the ordinary functioning of the Soviet system from Stalin's death through the Soviet collapse and Russia's first post-Soviet decade. Without overlooking the USSR's repressive character, the author treats it as a "normal" system that employed socialist and nationalist ideologies.